Las Salinas Grandes

Since the beginning of our trip, we knew there was a place we couldn’t miss : Las Salinas Grandes.  On the road to Chile, this desert of salt is considered the 3rd largest in the world after Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia and Salar de Arizaro en Salta. With 12,000 hectares and at an altitude of 3450 meters, it’s an impressive sight. The road from Pumamarca is very sinuous (99 bends in the road for only 30 kilometers!) and climbed up to 4100 meters high before going down to the Salinas. So we did like all the tourists, drove on the salar and took great pictures. On the road we saw so many llamas, it’s Stephanie who was happy because she got her picture with one!

I love that picture! Jumping up and up and up :)

Working hard!

fun pic!

people working carving salt

 Then we decided to drove a bit closer to the frontier with Chile and go to Susques, a very small village in the middle of nowhere but with a nice church. It’s the highest town in Argentina, being at 3896 meters high. We had lunch, out some gas in the car and headed back to Pumamarca.

The next day, we decided to head back to Salta. But before we went for a small walk around the city to see the mountain of 7 colors. For our last night together, we went to eat… a steak of chorizo off course!  On Thursday afternoon, Irene took a plane to Patagonia and I took a bus to Mendoza. Stephanie and Christine were heading back to Buenos Aires on Friday. Bye bye girls, it had been fun traveling with you. See you in Paris!